Revs' Joseph injured for opener

New England has battled through a series of injuries to several of its regulars in its preparations for the first match of the season, but the Revs may have picked up their most significant injury during a training session last week.

Midfield lynchpin Shalrie Joseph suffered a right hip flexor strain last Friday and will miss Saturday night's season opener with Los Angeles.

“I tweaked it on Friday when we just shooting around,” Joseph told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday. “I was doing a shooting drill and it was just me not stretching enough. I felt my hip flexor go and then they told me to just be smart about it and take some time off to make sure it's right.”

Although the injury isn't considered serious, Joseph said he's treating the minor tweak carefully considering its placement at the beginning of a long and arduous campaign. Joseph missed both Revolution training sessions this week prior to the team's Thursday afternoon departure to the West Coast.

“It feels good, but it's the first game of the season,” Joseph said. “They said that it's better to be preventative and take precautions. We have a whole season ahead of us. One game isn't going to end our season right now. It's just being smart about it.”

Revolution coach Steve Nicol expressed hope earlier in the week that Joseph would be able to take his usual spot in central midfield against the Galaxy, but decided to leave him out of the squad because he simply wasn't fit enough to feature.

“(The injury) just hasn't responded the way we wanted it to,” Nicol told MLSsoccer on Thursday.